Uncertainty is hanging in the air and every teacher is wondering what should be on their summer to do list. How do you prepare when you don't know what school will look like in the fall? If your school is like mine, no decisions have been made, but teachers still want to plan ahead.
Teachers are planners. We like to be well prepared because we know that without a plan things can go downhill quickly! There are a few things you can be doing this summer to prepare, no matter if you’ll be teaching in your physical classroom, hybrid or distance learning. You can be completely ready for your first week of school activities!
Tip #1 Prepare A Digital Classroom
Setting up your digital classroom should definitely be on your summer to do list. Regardless of whether you're in your physical classroom or teaching online, your digital classroom will be a great help to you and your students.
A digital classroom is a great place to assign online videos, books, boom cards and other digital resources. Keeping all your links in one place will keep you and your students organized. If we’re back to business as usual next fall, no worries! Your digital classroom won’t go to waste.
You can assign activities for kids to do during center time, for small group work, research activities and more. It’s a great place to post helpful videos, spelling words, and your weekly sight words. Students can access your digital classroom from school or at home.
Which platform is best?
Now is the time to decide which digital platform you’ll be using and get it set up and ready to go. There are lots to choose from and summer is a good time for you to do your research. Decide which one will work best for you.
My school will be using Google Classroom as our preferred platform and I found it quite user friendly last year. With a little guidance, my first graders were able to navigate our classroom and access videos, boom cards and online assignments.
Digital classrooms can also be created in Seesaw, Schoology and Edmoto as well. Take some time this summer to choose your favorite and get your digital classroom set up and ready to go.
Tipt #2 Take A Closer Look At Your Standards
Next on your summer to do list – take a closer look at your standards. When was the last time you really looked at your standards for each subject? We may have to change up our normal routine next fall. Now is a great time to really dig into your standards and think about what you’ll be teaching.
Some students may need review from the year before when they come to school in the fall. Take a look at the standards from the prior year and see where you may need to fill in the gaps.
Reach out to the teachers from that grade level and talk to them about the last part of the school year. What lessons did the students miss while they were out of school due to Covid-19? Ask them for a list of ideas you can do to help your incoming students catch up to speed.
Tip #3 Consider Your Curriculum
Have you thought about your curriculum? Add this to your summer to do list. Now is the time to consider how it can be modified , should you need to teach both in class and online.
Our district uses the Journeys reading series and we've discussed taking two weeks to teach each lesson this year. We know that our students are probably going to be somewhat behind because of the time out of school last spring. It'll be beneficial for our students to take it slowly, especially at the beginning of the school year. We’ll need to spend a lot more time reviewing kindergarten skills, so my team and I are beginning to develop a plan for that over the summer.
We'll be using these book companions to help us combine our reading, writing and math with online books that kids can read in school or at home. These worked great last year for distance learning and I can't wait to use them again this year. You can grab a week of free lessons to help you get started here.
What skills will you need to teach?
Think about the skills that you normally teach in the fall. How will you need to modify that for your students. What if you have to do a hybrid method of teaching? Will some of your days in class and some online? How will you cover your standards and meet your students needs at the same time? What online or digital resources can you add to your plan so that it can be used both in class and at home?
This summer is a great time to start planning on what that might look like in each subject. Get a notebook and create a mock plan for how you might teach a lesson in class, online or hybrid. Just get a feel for what that might look like in your core subjects like reading, writing and math.
It’s not necessary for you to write complete lesson plans. Just sketch it out and start to get a vision. I created a simple spreadsheet for myself for the first four weeks of school.
My spreadsheet included weekly themes, books that I would be using in class and links to online books too. I also included links to videos, boom cards and other digital resources I could use. Finally I added a list of the printable resources I could use in the classroom or for home packets. If you begin to develop a plan, it will make you feel more in control knowing you're ready for any circumstance.
Tip #4 Explore Digital Resources
No matter if we're teaching in our physical classroom or online, digital learning is here to stay. Exploring some of the different options that are available to you is a great thing to add to your summer to do list. Begin to plug them into your plan.
I have to be honest and say that until last year I wasn’t a huge fan of digital learning. But after I was forced to use it during the pandemic, I suddenly saw the benefits. I began to really enjoy some of the different technology tools that I discovered.
My Favorite Digital Resources
One of my favorites was Boom Cards. These digital task cards made my life so much easier and I could assign different activities to all my students in any subject. The kids loved them because they’re interactive and give instant feedback. I loved them because they were paperless and self grading. It was a win win! Hop over here to read more about how I use boom cards in my classroom.
Some other great tech tools and resources you might want to check out are whiteboard.fi , Epic Books, and just simple YouTube videos. These were all lifesavers to me during distance learning.
Another favorite of mine is Scholastic News. Our school bought a subscription to this kid friendly magazine for our students and it was a huge help during distance learning. I use this resource every week in both my physical and digital classroom. It offers a weekly magazine with links to games and videos. It's the perfect way to hit your science and social studies standards and the kids love it!
Spending a little time this summer can really help you so you can get organized and leave school on time this fall!
Need more ideas for distance learning? Tap on the picture to check out this post about surviving distance learning in first grade.
